Favourite computer history books?
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From: Michael Cardell Widerkrantz on 5 May 2010 03:38 If you liked Hackers and Where Wizards Stay Up Late, I recommend these: - Life with UNIX: A guide for Everyone, Don Libes & Sandy Ressler. ISBN-10: 0135366577 ISBN-13: 978-0135366578 - The Devouring Fungus, Karla Jennings Computer folklore. Interesting tales. - The UNIX-HATERS Handbook I especially like Dennis Ritchie's anti-foreword, but a lot of the other stuff is quite funny, although dated. Available online for free these days: http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/weise/uhh-download.html - The Jargon File The originals: http://jargon-file.org/archive/ GLS's published version "The Hacker's Dictionary", Harper & Row (ISBN 0-06-091082-8). It can be found in an online version: http://jargon-file.org/archive/jargon-1.5.0.dos.txt ESR's new version: http://www.catb.org/esr/jargon/html/index.html The last published version is "The New Hacker's Dictionary" from MIT Press (ISBN 0-262-18154-1). -- http://hack.org/mc/ Use plain text e-mail, please. OpenPGP welcome, 0xE4C92FA5.
From: Geoffrey S. Mendelson on 5 May 2010 04:09 Thomas R. Kettler wrote: > That explains why honeybees have been dying by the millions. People > having been telling them they can't fly! > ><http://www.greenearthfriend.com/2009/01/colony-collapse-disorder-ccd-hon > eybees-dying-by-the-millions/> They have been dying by the millions because of a disease they had no immunity to. There is now a vaccine for it, The same thing has happened in human history, look up the "black plague" (100m dead in 1400), syphilis (1m dead in Europe between 1494-1546) and the influenza pandemic (1918) (50m deaths). Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm(a)mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.
From: Warren Oates on 5 May 2010 07:51 In article <hrqo46$enh$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>, Charles Richmond <frizzle(a)tx.rr.com> wrote: > Pessimist: Looks at the glass as half empty. > > Optimist: Looks at the glass as half full. > > Optometrist: Says "Does the glass look better this way, or this > way... this way, or this way..." Bureaucrat: That glass is twice as big as it needs to be. -- Very old woody beets will never cook tender. -- Fannie Farmer
From: Walter Bushell on 5 May 2010 08:05 In article <michelle-C54688.23171004052010(a)62-183-169-81.bb.dnainternet.fi>, Michelle Steiner <michelle(a)michelle.org> wrote: > In article > <7b6d8ba5-ffab-4d20-b345-7085cf663b13(a)b18g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>, > Mensanator <mensanator(a)aol.com> wrote: > > > > That reminds me of the story about the guy who travels back in time to > > > take Newton a calculator, thinking it would advance science. �He is in > > > the process of demonstrating some things when the answer happens to > > > be, "666." Newton does not take that one well at all. > > > > What was the problem? Summing the integers from 1 to 36? > > set x to 0 > repeat with i from 1 to 36 > set x to x + i > end repeat 37*18 Sum of integers from 1 to n is ((n+1)*n)/2. And you don't even need induction to prove it. hint n-1 +2 = n+1 etcetera. -- A computer without Microsoft is like a chocolate cake without mustard.
From: Walter Bushell on 5 May 2010 08:07
In article <hrqno7$9q5$9(a)news.eternal-september.org>, Charles Richmond <frizzle(a)tx.rr.com> wrote: > Jennifer Usher wrote: > > > > > > "Lewis" <g.kreme(a)gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote in message > > news:slrnhu16oe.2jll.g.kreme(a)ibook-g4.local... > > > >>> According to folklore the laws of aerodynamics prove that the bumblebee > >>> should be incapable of flight but scientists never claimed that they had > >>> evolved an anti-gravity organ or anything like that. It was always clear > >>> that we simply didn't have an adequate grasp of aerodynamics, fluid > >>> dynamics, biomechanics etc to explain such a complex phenomenon. > >> > >> It took Chaos theory to explain it, as I recall. > > > > Actually, the simple answer is, bumblebees don't study physics. > > > > The longer answer is a bit more complex and has to do with viscosity and > > fluid dynamics: > > > > http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March00/APS_Wang.hrs.html > > > > Right! Bumblebees fly because they do *not* study physics. > > > And as Mark Twain said: > > "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a > misprint." Same as chemistry or physics or electronic particularly back in the day of vacuum tubes, or electrical wiring today. -- A computer without Microsoft is like a chocolate cake without mustard. |